Teaching a Toddler

Joe asked his 2 ½ year-old son, Jack, if he would please take his empty coffee cup to the kitchen. Jack said no. Joe then explained to Jack that when he asked his father to help, Joe always did. So it was only right and proper that Jack should honor his father’s request and help him when asked. Jack thought about that for a while, picked up the coffee cup, held it up to Joe and said, “Help me.“

I’ve heard that smart dogs are not for everyone. Neither are smart children.

Like this:

Related

Post navigation

21 thoughts on “Teaching a Toddler”

Yep. At the time of this incident, my son was 13 years old. Just before bedtime he asked that I come into his room as he wanted to talk with me about a “serious problem.” Now I ask: How often do you get an invitation to talk with a teenager? So I knocked on the door, entered the room and…whoosh! a fake spider on a string brushed across my face. I yelled. The boy laughed.

There was the time that my son was in trouble with me in the car. We got where we were going, I exited the car. He locked all the doors and I realized I left the keys in the car when I was angry and not attending to the keys.

Then, there was the Easter when he was 4 years old. The Easter Bunny arrived as EB always does, providing chocolate eggs, M&M’s, and jelly beans, etc. We went to church the Sunday following. During the children’s sermon the minister asked the kids, “Did anyone here get an Easter Basket?”

The children all nod and yell, “Yes.”

Then a little voice, clear as a bell and loud, amplified by the microphone, “I did, but my mom ate all the M&M’s.”

I was observing a preschool classroom once and saw a little boy who was all over the room, quite overly active. He seemed to be everywhere I looked. I made a mental note to alert his teacher to his extreme activity. He was taken into the bathroom stage left, and, I instantly saw him, stage right, on the other side of the room. I had been observing identical twins, dressed alike!

I’m sure he outsmarted us plenty of times, but I do remember the first time Joel told me exactly what he thought of my housekeeping. When he was two, he would make forts on our (second-hand) couch, with cushions and the coverlet I had thrown over it. Then he would leave and I’d think he was finished and put it all neatly back together. One day when this had happened at least twice, he stood up to his full height, looked me in the eye and said firmly “I NEED LOUR [YOUR] COUCH BEIN’ NOT SO CLEAN.” He’d just said his first long sentence, and I heard him.

I’ve told this before, but it fits. My grandson is so smart I hope he doesn’t figure out how far beyond his family he actually is. When he was younger his parents tried hard (too hard, I thought) to make him eat foods that didn’t appeal to him. A food they disagreed on was broccoli, which Liam called “brockies.”

Liam’s dad learned he could trick Liam into eating some foods with reverse psychology. When Liam refused to eat something, his dad would ban him from eating any more of it and ask to finish Liam’s plate himself. And then Liam would eat a bit.

One day Liam refused to eat his brockies. His dad grinned and said, “Okay, Liam, you just lost out. I want your brockies. I want ALL your brockies!”

Liam smiled sweetly, then took his plate to his dad. “Here, daddy. I love you. You can eat ALL my brockies!”

When my now oldest grandson was 3, the family gathered at my house for Easter Sunday. Little Willie came in a bow tie and fancy shirt. At some point, he slipped outside and found my garden hose. He also discovered that he could push the sprayer handle on the end of the hose. He gleefully started spraying the windows, then the whole house. When we tried to stop him, he began spraying US! For at least 15 minutes, the adults tried everything to get the hose away from him, but he’d discovered by then that he had tremendous power over all of us, and he liked his newfound power a lot. We tried distracting him; we tried one of us sneaking up from behind him; we tried tricking him by having two choices of adults on either side. Every ploy failed, and most of us wound up soaking wet. I’ll never forget the demonic expression on his little face.

I’ve always wished that incident could’ve been submitted to America’s Funniest Home video, but there was no video camera. I have know doubt this hilarious event would’ve won first prize!

We used to play Flashlight Hide & Seek after supper – when child was old enough to hide on his own, he loved to outwit us – once we finally found him under the kitchen sink, another time on top of the fridge…

Certain kids have a low threshold of b*llsh*t. The daughter of a friend of mine is one. At a dinner gathering, I heard her talking to a guy who has an eye patch. She asked him why he was wearing it, and he responded, “Because I like to be a pirate. Arrrrr.” She looked at him rather disgustedly and said, “You’re not a pirate.” Her expression clearly said “Why are grownups always trying to pull this s**t on me?” Her father also tells a story about how when she was quite small and he was trying to comfort her during a thunderstorm, he said that the storm would help the flowers grow in the yard and blah blah blah. She gave him an outraged look and said, “Flowers don’t need thunder.” She seems destined to challenge authority.

Yes!! It’s amazing how both can be so smart! We have one house dog and two toddlers 🙂 my oldest moves a chair and starts stuffing marshmallows in her mouth will simultaneously throwing them down to her younger sister anytime I’m not within view. Needless to say we no longer have any Marshmallows and I don’t plan on buying any!